


In the eye of the beholder

by szczepter



Series: Kagakuromonth fics [6]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, M/M, POV Third Person, are they or aren't they fic, kagakuromonth2014, the oc is not mine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 00:05:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2526641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/szczepter/pseuds/szczepter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tanaka Aki screwed up, so she tries again. Wonder what will come of her investigation now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the eye of the beholder

**Author's Note:**

> wasn't supposed to write for 3rd person pov, but suddenly plot bunny. it's not neccesary, but you can read this this dJ: http://thebasketballidiots.tumblr.com/post/99110940694/next-to-kagakuro-kun-scanlation to better understand this fic, but I think it's very easy to follow on it's own. 
> 
> thanks to WhiteHiganbana for the scanlation <3
> 
> for kagakuro month, week3 3rd person pov

The sad truth was that Tanaka Aki screwed up.

It wasn't really a big screw up mind you. It wasn’t about something really significant either. But she’s determined and doesn’t like to do anything half assed, so she offers her serviced again.

Riko laughs nervously and waves a hand at her.

“Oh forget about it. It was a stupid bet anyway.” She admits, a little shamefully. “No one really cares anymore? Look, it’s a closed topic.” Aki is skeptical. She’s pretty sure the whole basketball team really wants to know if their two players are or aren’t a couple.

The worst thing?

She also wants to know.

At first she agreed because it was a favor for a friend. She did her part, but she wasn’t really happy with it. Her ‘investigation’ (for a lack of a better word) was really clumsy and unprofessional. She’s determined to do better this time. Even if Riko doesn’t need to know the results anymore.

She reflects on her previous observations. They were done really without any deeper analysis. Sure they acted a bit...strange in some of the situations, but to really jump to conclusion of there being something more was...biased.

Yes. Biased. If you set out to prove a hypothesis which you believe in then you will have no problems with proving it.

This time she will not assume that there is something going on, from the start. No matter what she’ll witness.

 

* * *

 

During long break she follows them outside. They decide to get some fresh air, before it’s already too cold to enjoy the school yard. She tails a little behind them, so as not to make them suspicious. She still remembers the fiasco in the infirmary. She was _so_ sure, they were kissing then, but as it turned out it was _just_ a convenient angle and a trick of the light.

She loses them briefly and panics, but then she hears their voices and quickly hides behind a tree. It’s not a very thick tree, so she stays pressed to it, but unfortunately with her back to them and she can’t really turn around, so she’s only able to listen.

“That’s stupid.” She hears Kagami’s annoyed voice. Then there is a pause after which he continues. “I mean, is it even physically possible?” Another pause.

“Aomine-kun could do it.” Kuroko’s soft voice cuts in. Pause. “At least he said so.” Kagami snorts and then it’s silent again. “Bullshit.” He comments. Pauses. “I don’t believe him.”

“You do?” Pause again. Aki frowns.

“Not really, but this is Aomine-kun we are talking about.” Pause.

“Yeah, but that’s still dangerous.” Pause.

“That never stopped you from doing dangerous things Kagami-kun.” Pause. Snort.

“I still think it’s stupid.” Pause.

Okay what’s up with those weird, prolonged pauses? She was beginning to squirm from not being able to see. The two continued their conversation about something which Aki didn’t understood at all (what the hell was a ‘zone’ and what it had to do with playing basketball on a rooftop? Seriously. _Boys_.) so she decided to take her chance and peek.

She craned her neck and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Kagami and Kuroko were sitting on the still soft grass and talking, while a can of Pepsi was being passed between them, the boys taking turns to sip from it.

They seemed to do it unconsciously, not even realizing that what they did was a little too...well. Not _casual_.

Aki made a face. The can was probably full of their shared DNA. She felt like she just witnessed the world’s most chaste, indirect makeout.

“Ah. It’s empty.” Kagami said when he drank the last bit of the soda. He crushed the can in his hand. “Let’s go.” He nudged Kuroko and then helped him up, when he was standing himself.

They walked passed her tree, not really paying attention to her, still immersed in their conversation. Aki breathed a sigh of relief, when they were out of sight.

She didn’t know whether to find that endearing or a little disturbing how normal that looked for them.

\---

Since they are both on the basketball team, it’s only natural that they will spend a lot of time together also _playing_ basketball.

Aki has no desire to follow them to some shabby street court after a long day of school and her own club. She’s not _insane_.

Problem is she can’t really observe their practice (at least not officially), not to mention be in the club room (not that she would want _that_ , god forbid).

She manages to catch them after classes when they are heading to their club room, so she tails them. Which is a little difficult, since the school corridors are empty at this hour. Well, no matter. They seem to be too absorbed in their own world for now.

“I think it’s going to rain today.” Kuroko comments, while looking at his phone.

“Really?” Kagami sounds very disappointed. “Means we can’t go to the street court after club. _Again_.” There is an audible pout in his voice and she hears Kuroko’s faint chuckle

“Kagami-kun is a monster. We have grueling practices and yet, you still want to play basketball. Truly a basketball junkie.”

“Oi!” Kagami shoves Kuroko lightly. “Watch it midget. One more word and you won’t get your beloved yakisoba for dinner.” Kuroko fake gasps.

“You are despicable.” Kagami snorts.

“What about that rain.” Kuroko hums.

“It says here that it might rain in the neighboring cities.  I think it can rain in Tokyo too, but it’s not certain.” Kagami nods.

“You wanna risk?”

“I will have to stay at your place again if it rains.”

“What a tragedy.” Kagami comments sarcastically.

“And wear your sweaty clothes.”

“I washed them!” He snaps. “Also you didn’t complain last time.” Aki raises an eyebrow at the exchange and then almost trips when she sees Kuroko’s ears color slightly.

“Oi...”

“Fine.”

“What?”

“Let’s risk it. I can stay for the night.” Kagami pauses and then nods stiffly. She briefly sees his profile, when they pass a closed classroom. He’s blushing.

 

* * *

 

“You’re late!” Hyuga bellows when Kagami and Kuroko enter the gym, already changed and Aki sneaks on the balcony to observe. Gosh, the captain is always so _loud_. How can they stand him?

“Sorry!” Kagami squeaks when his cheeks are being stretched as a punishment.

“We were on the roof.” He says while massaging his sore jaw. Kagami isn’t particularly mindful of who will hear him when his voice resonates in the gym like in a concert hall. The captain grumbled.

“What was so important on that roof that kept you so long?” Kagami awkwardly scratches his nape.

“Nothing.” He mumbles “We just fell asleep.”

“You took a nap? During classes?”

“It was after class.” Kuroko chimes in. “Kagami-kun was pulling an all-nighter for out test today. He was very tired so we decided to relax a bit on the roof and he fell asleep. I just kept him company.”

Aki blesses the gym for the wonderful acoustics, since the boy’s voice is so soft and quiet, she doubts she would be able to hear anything otherwise. Involuntary she imagines the two of them snuggled up on a rooftop. She shakes her head to clear it of the image.

“Leave them.” Riko cuts in. “We don’t have time for it. Time to get to work.” Aki soon realizes that Riko is a slave driver. The boys run, jump, shot and do other tiring things over and over again, while Riko shouts instructions, scolds them and (occasionally) praises.

After that, they decide to play a mini game.

Aki has never really seen a basketball match in real life before. She wasn’t able to attend any of the first Inter high or Winter Cup, because she’s not that interested in sports herself and she really didn’t had anyone to go with.

She realizes the game isn’t really that complicated, and she starts slowly enjoying it, rooting for both ‘teams’. That’s now why she’s here however, so she switches focus to her targets.

Kagami and Kuroko are on the same team, with three other boys she doesn’t really know, but they look like they are all the same age. The two of them form a center of the team, while the rest orbits around them. She’s not really into sport, so she doesn’t know what’s considered good and what not, but she knows talent when she sees one.

Or rather she can feel Kagami’s overwhelming and bottomless potential when he dunks a ball into a basket so hard it rattles the whole hoop and probably the whole gym.

“Uwah!” The three boys cheer, because they have won the first half of their mini game with that dunk.

“Kagami-kun is always so forceful. You could have destroyed the sport facilities again.” Aki find herself gape at Kuroko, who materialized out of nowhere. Interestingly, Kagami doesn’t seem surprised and merely snorts.

“Well, excuse me. You can’t dunk a ball ‘gently.’”

“I could.” Kagami gives Kuroko a look.

“You can’t dunk.”

“But if I could.

“But you _can’t_.”

“But if I could.”

“Maybe if I’d lift you, then yeah.”

“That would be cheating.”

“Oi, you two stop your flirting and get back here!” Aki watches as Kagami and Kuroko flush lightly and then Kagami ruffles Kuroko’s hair.

“We’ll continue that conversation later.” He says barely audible and then jogs back to the center of the gym. Kuroko fixes his hair and Aki sees a very, teeny-tiny smile grace his lips, before he runs up to his partner.

Huh.

 

* * *

 

There are a lot of random, casual touches between the two of them. It's not like she has never seen two boys being friendly with each other. It's normal for them, though some are more physical than others. Kuroko seems to be the much less physical of the two, she notices. It's Kagami who mainly initiates the touching.

Poking or shoving each other lightly (or as lightly as you can when you are a 190cm tall athlete with the strength to make the whole gym shake (okay not the whole gym) because of your dunk (though he has never did anything which would actually hurt Kuroko seriously so he must know his own as well as his friend's limits) as a means of physical banter.

The hair ruffles are something different though. Aki observes and realizes that they are a synonymous with ‘ _you did good_ ’ or ‘ _you amused me_ ’ or ‘ _I like your company_ ’. At least that’s what she _thinks_ they mean.

She wonders if Kuroko himself is able to decipher them. Though she supposes he is, since he always smile after Kagami had ruffled his hair and made it stick out like a bird’s nest. Though he always pretends to look annoyed.

She wonders if Kagami was able to realize that Kuroko doesn’t mind.

 

* * *

 

Aki looks at her notes. Yes, she's been actually making _notes_. About her two very stupid and very obvious classmates. They look like this:

_Sharing drinks and food - check_

_Bickering - check_

_Good team work - check_

_Sharing clothes (!) - check_

_Sleeping on the roof – check_

_Randomly touching - check_

_Conclusion - Dating ???_

She puts the pen back on the desk and sighs heavily. These are not good enough. All of these could be amounted to being good friends, _best_ friends. But a couple? Not really? It would be a very big stretch. She's just not sure _how_ big.

There is only one thing left to check. And if she won't get good results then she's quitting. No reason for her to be bothered by this and as Riko herself said, it was a stupid bet, not worth the effort.

The thing she needs to check is very simple yet very crucial for making a final verdict.

Basically the looks.

Looks can be deceiving, but they can also be very telling. For the past few days she's been focusing mostly on the physical side of their relationship (if you could even call it that) and well, many boys pat each other on the head, or jab each other in the sides. Or share clothes and food. And bicker like her parents... Point is, it's normal. The other...things are a little disconcerting, but let's put them on the account of their really bizarre friendship.

So looks.

She wasn't able to see how they actually look _at_ each other, because she was observing from a considerable distance (and during the previous escapades she might have been a little...biased from the get go), but now she will pay closer attention.

Thankfully it's free period now, so she can observe.

Kagami is hunched over a notebook and scribbles his kanji, while Kuroko makes some of his own notes. Kagami has a look of intense concentration, tongue peeking in the corner of his mouth as he keeps writing. Kuroko peeks at him over the book to check if he's doing well. When Kagami struggles at one kanji and takes a longer pause to think and then makes a triumphant noise when he finds the answer Kuroko gives him a very secret smile, which makes even Aki a little flushed. He just looks so pleased. No, proud. He looks _proud_.

When they switch to English, it's Kagami's turn to make moon eyes. Kuroko reads quietly his text and although his skills are not bad, he does get some words wrong. It makes Kagami snicker under his breath and correct the other boy on his pronunciation. Kuroko actually pouts then, but reads the word again with the correct spelling and moves on and Kagami rests his face in his palm and just stares, gaze becoming impossibly _soft_. 

It distinctly reminds Aki of how her friend, Yuri, looks at her boyfriend from class 2-B. It's the same love struck gaze she has whenever her boyfriend makes something ridiculous (or as Yuri calls it 'romantic').

She sighs and rubs her face with her palms.

She might just have her answer to one question but not to the one which he set out to discover.

Their ridiculous behavior continues for almost a week more, and finally Aki has it enough. It's not that she particularly _wants_ them to get together. It's none of her business if you get down to it.

No. It's just that. They look so _hopeless_? Both in the way that they tip-toe around each other in the most annoying way possible (if you actually start looking them that is) and the way they both think it's unrequited. Which is ridiculous, because if they just. Just _looked_.

So Aki gets kind of impatient.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Kuroko announces during one break and Kagami nods. When the shorter boy stands up, Kagami follows him with his gaze, pure affection seeping through it (he probably doesn't realize it himself) and Aki actually groans. That's it.

She tears a piece of paper from her notebook, rapidly writes a short message, makes a ball out of it and throws it at Kagami's head. The boy makes a disgruntled and confused noise when he gets hit and when he realizes it was her who did, he gives Aki a glare. She's not that easily intimidated and she motions for him to pick it up and read.

Kagami grumbles, but obeys, he unwraps the crumbled piece of paper, reads the message and promptly blushes. He looks up at Aki and gives her a confused stare, but she returns it with her own. Challenging him.

 _Just kiss him you idiot._ Is what she hastily scribbled.

"B-but-" Kagami stutters but she shushes him. He claps his mouth shut and after a moment of thinking mouths _'can't do it._ '

 _'Why?_ ' She asks with her eyes and he rubs the back of his neck. He shrugs.

 _'Scared_.' He finally admits and she rolls her eyes. She wants to ask of what, but then they hear Kuroko speaking from the doorway.

"Kagami-kun, there's a discount on melon bread, do you want some?" They both startle and look at the boy in disbelief.

 _When did he get here?!_ She thinks, but quickly comes to, when Kagami just freezes and stares at Kuroko with his mouth gaping open and his stupid blush. She throws another ball of paper at him.

"What? No thanks, I-" He stops himself and then Aki just glares and makes hand motions for Kagami to get his ass up and _do_ something. Kuroko raises an eyebrow.

"Kagami-kun?" The boy in questions suddenly bolts from his chair, walks up to Kuroko and grabs him by the arm.

"I...I wanna show you something."

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

"Can't this wait? we have class in 10 minutes."

"No it can't." He ushers them both out of the classroom and Aki nods satisfied.

Although she starts getting a bit impatient when it's nearing next class soon and they aren't back yet. Well it's not her business if they are late doing indecent things in their free time-oh here they are.

They both stagger into the classroom and in barely take their seats when the teacher comes in. It's math and Aki quiet actually likes it, so she barely focuses on the two idiots to her right.

Kagami is buzzing with some kind of energy. He keeps jiggling his leg and playing with his pen. He doesn't take notes however.

Kuroko on the other hand, covers himself with the math textbook and glances sometimes at Kagami's back. Both are equally read.

Aki sighs and shakes her head. Boys.

The lesson ends and the moment the teacher is out of the classroom, Kagami turns suddenly in his seat.

"Kuroko!" He says, a little too loud and a little too excited. Aki raises an eyebrow when Kuroko actually jumps in his seat.

"Y-yes?" They both look at each other with wide eyes.

"D-do you want to come over and have a sleepover on Friday?" Kuroko blinks and then flushes even more.

"I'd like that, yes." Kagami suddenly grins and ruffles Kuroko's hair, his hand lingering a little longer than usually on the boy's head. Kuroko swats it, but he pauses (it's just a moment) when they fingers brush.

"Cool." Kagami says and turns around pretending to rummage through his things.

Aki blinks. She really feels like she just witnessed a historical moment.

Picking up her pencil, she finds her 'notes' on the two idiots.

_Conclusion - Dating ???_

She crosses the two question marks and writes the final piece of information.

_Conclusion - Dating ? ~~??~~  they are now_

This closes the investigation for good.


End file.
